Pepsi Center: Denver turns to rising Nuggets from falling Broncos
By Mike Wilson
As you struggle to swallow, your throat burns and you struggle to find your breath.
It feels like you did your last wind sprint of practice and the team’s trainer just shouts, “OKAY.. there is ONE more!”
No more left to give. Out of gas.
If that isn’t bad enough, the crowd is deafening.
You stand with your hands clasped behind your head at the free throw line, you look back at your coach who has his hands cusped around his mouth shouting out to you.
You can’t hear it but ignore him. You are more focused on getting your breath back and shaking out the stars that are starting to creep up out of the corner of your eyes.
You look back to the hoop set with a backdrop of screaming fans waving their hands and you notice the home team lined up, looking at you, not feeling the same panic.
Breathing deeply. Calmly.
Smiling because they know. Know they got you come fourth quarter.
That is the Mile High advantage. For decades, Denver’s football team has enjoyed one of the best home field advantages in all of sports.
Denver Nuggets
The most heralded quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady, dreads playing in Denver, regardless of the Bronco’s record. “Crazy things happen up in that thin air, man”
Since 2001, Brady and the Patriots have played in Denver eight times and Brady is 2-6 in those games, a total that includes an 0-2 mark in the postseason. His worst record in any away location. This is not unique to Brady. This is what happens playing at elevation.
This article is not about the Broncos, nor the NFL, but rather, how the fans are spilling back into the Pepsi Center, thirsty for a Denver sport’s team to be proud of following the one of the Bronco’s worst finishes in team history.
Tonight, the Nuggets host the Utah Jazz at the Pepsi Center for another sold out game of this 2016-17 season. Want to know if Denver has returned to the Nuggets and the Pepsi Center? Last year, the number of sell out games was 3. This year? We are at 6 sell out games as of tonight and now that the Broncos are done, the attention the Nuggets are seeing from one of the strongest fan bases in sports is only swelling.
The Nuggets last “great” season was in 2012-13, when the team last made an appearance in the playoffs, the team finished with a regular season of 57-25. This year? This year has put up the best starting record for the Denver Nuggets since that 57 win season. The Nuggets have won 20 games, which is 8 games ahead of last year’s pace at this time.
When it comes to how the Nuggets have historically excelled at home, in that last 57 win season, the Nuggets only lost 3 home games going into the post season. 3 games! In fact, they didn’t lose ONCE at home the entire season past January 18th.
This year, we go into tonight’s game against the Jazz with one of the best home records in the NBA with having lost only 4 times at home (13-4…76ers game last Saturday still making me sick).
The Nuggets have had one of the biggest home advantages during that last 2003-2013 playoff era and now as we start on a new era of Nuggets basketball….the home advantage has come back home to the Pepsi Center.
Next time you attend the Pepsi Center, you will notice 5280/300 on the hardwood baseline. The 300 alludes to the number of days of sunshine typically experienced in the Centennial state.
The 5280? Well, that is the elevation of the city above sea level. A mile high.
Which is about as high as the city’s hopes are for their new playoff hope for a team in the city for the distant future.
The Nuggets are here to take winter sports back in Denver…it continues tonight at the Pepsi Center.
-Miked Up
Twitter: @mwilsonco